On this film - yes. I think Cameron the director forgot to bring along Cameron the writer.
Terminator and Aliens, were packed with interesting detail and
memorable dialogue.
His other films - not so much, but still better than Avatar.
On this latest show of his, he's clearly letting the visuals do the talking.

You are right.The movie is a plethora of visually stunning art. As to the content, the rape of any subclass has been going on forever. the image of Poles charging German tanks comes to mind. The truth is all wars are ultimately about power and wealth. It aint EVER going to change!Mayby it can't?

The two biggest problems I have with it are the dialogue and the plot. Why exactly are their giant hot blue women on a planet far far away? The odds of this are pretty much exactly zero in terms of plain old random chance / evolution etc. We don't even find any other species on our own planet attractive (hopefully). What are the odds that there are sassy blue humanoids out there in space based on random evolution? I'd say none, and this plot hole bothers me.

Another: Why is this species the only (apparently mammalian) one on the planet that isn't six-limbed?

And another: If these people are connected to the self-aware, interconnected planet, why didn't they know about the approaching bulldozers until the trees were literally crashing down on their heads? They'd been coming for three months, cutting a freaking ROAD.

Yes, there are huge plot holes. Doesn't matter. Go for the visuals. This movie is a game-changer. From this point forward, anything someone can imagine can be put on film.

I'm actually hoping someone will make a film version of Dune that will live up to the book's potential. The technology exists now.

... but the intelligence in Hollywood to understand the subtlety of the work does not. Dune lives in one's mind, just as the story therein lies in the minds of the characters, and any attempt by Hollywood to show this on screen will very likely disappoint the living hell out of me.

The rest of my family was really hot to see it, so I went along somewhat reluctantly, though a bit curious too.

I agree that the world he developed was simply amazing. And for once, 3D wasn't just a gimmick, but added to the awe of that world. It was very cool to just explore the universe he created; something Cameron has been very good at (Aliens, Terminator, Abyss).

On the other hand, I couldn't help but analyze the heck out of that movie as I was watching it. That did spoil the enjoyment for me. If it hadn't been such a freakin' propaganda piece, I probably would have enjoyed it a whole lot more.

"My wife and I left after about an hour because of boredom. Never could connect with the charactors."

Wow, did you see it in 3d?
You missed quite a bit.

"Yeah, I don't know what all this Star Wars hype is. It seemed to take place mostly on some desolate backwater moisture farm. Some robots got lost and sold as junk, and this farm kid was cleaning them... yawnsville. The kid's uncle was rambling on about the harvest, then one of the robots got lost again, and we finally had to walk out when the the kid was stuck listening to another rambling story from yet another dusty old man. Whoop-de-doo."

"...we finally had to walk out when the the kid was stuck listening to another rambling story from yet another dusty old man."

If memory serves, when Star Wars first came out back in the day, that was approximately my reaction. Had "yet another dusty old man" not been Sir Alec Guinness, I probably wouldn't have stayed much longer.

As it was, yeah it was a fun little romp, definitely a movie you should see at least once. But you don't miss anything important by waiting for it to come out on video.

Did anyone else hear "unobtainium" and think of "upsadasium" from "Rocky and Bullwinkle"? :-D

Note:
All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost;
references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>